Sir Gary Oldman in ‘Slow Horses’ premiering September 24, 2025 on Apple TV+.
Landing on Apple TV+ on September 24th with the first episode (five more follow at the rate of one per week) is the fifth season of ‘Slow Horses’, which draws from Mick Herron’s source novel ‘London Rules’.
(L to R): Kristin Scott Thomas and James Callis in ‘Slow Horses’, premiering September 24, 2025 on Apple TV+.
Proving itself to be something of a slow-burn sensation, ‘Slow Horses’ has been gaining in pop cultural awareness and adulation across the last couple of years, with awards coming its way and more promotion.
There are, naturally, more eyes on Season 5 than ever before (even if the running joke is that Apple has excellent shows precious few people watch or know about beyond the megahit ‘Severance’), and thankfully, it is more than deserving of the attention.
Script and Direction
Nick Mohammed in ‘Slow Horses’, premiering September 24, 2025 on Apple TV+.
Smith and his writers continue to mine Mick Herron’s book series for comic brilliance and suitably twisty spy tales. This season’s story, set as a mayoral election grips London and shocking violence roils the capital, is loaded down with trademark quips and naturally great roles for its main cast.
There is, in fact, even more focus on the denizens of Slough House than ever this year, and it really works.
Returning director Saul Metzstein, has a clear eye for how the show works visually, and if it’s lighter on action compared to other shows, that’s not the real focus here.
Cast and Performances
Christopher Chung in ‘Slow Horses’, premiering September 24, 2025 on Apple TV+.
Oldman continues to prove he’s the perfect Jackson Lamb (there is a joke about penguins and Batman that is so perfectly delivered, it might make you pause the show from laughing), and as usual he anchors the ensemble.
But everyone is on their A-game here, with a welcome boost of screen time for Christopher Chung as arrogant, nerdy tech expert Roddy Ho. While he’s the sort of character you usually prefer in small doses, Chung makes him likeable enough that it works to have him enjoy more of a spotlight.
Final Thoughts
(L to R): Rosalind Eleazar, Christopher Chung, Saskia Reeves, Aimee-Ffion Edwards and Jack Lowden in ‘Slow Horses’, premiering September 24, 2025 on Apple TV+.
‘Slow Horses’ remains one of the best shows on TV –– streaming or otherwise –– and Season Five is just more proof of why. Perfectly pitched in terms of tone and character, it’s a sweary, funny treat.
‘Slow Horses’ Season 5 receives 87 out of 100.
(L to R): Kristin Scott Thomas and Sir Gary Oldman in ‘Slow Horses,’ premiering September 24, 2025 on Apple TV+.
What’s the plot of ‘Slow Horses’ Season 5?
In Season Five, everyone is suspicious when resident tech nerd Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung) has a glamorous new girlfriend, but when a series of increasingly bizarre events occur across the city, it falls to the Slow Horses to work out how everything is connected.
After all, Lamb (Gary Oldman) knows that in the world of espionage, the London Rules – cover your back – always apply.
Sir Gary Oldman in ‘Slow Horses’, premiering September 24, 2025 on Apple TV+.
Who stars in ‘Slow Horses’ Season 5?
Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb
Jack Lowden as River Cartwright
Kristin Scott Thomas as Diana Taverner
Christopher Chung as Roddy Ho
Rosalind Eleazar as Louisa Guy
Saskia Reeves as Catherine Standish
Nick Mohammed as Zafar Jaffrey
Gary Oldman in ‘Slow Horses’ season 4 now streaming on Apple TV+.
The 77th Emmys hosted by Nate Bargatze will air on CBS and Paramount+ September 14th.
Preview:
‘The Studio’, ‘Hacks’ and more won at the Emmy Awards.
Noah Wyle and Britt Lower were named lead actors in a drama for their shows.
Nate Bargatze hosted the show.
This year’s Emmy Awards were held on Sunday night, and there were a lot of expected winners, including repeat appearances from Team ‘Hacks‘ (Jean Smart scored fourth award) and ‘The Traitors’.
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Nate Bargatze hosted –– but beyond a relatively fun opening monologue taking expected swipes at TV such as ‘The Bear’ qualifying as comedy rather than drama, he wasn’t all that impressive as emcee for the night. The only element that worked was a running total donation to the Boys & Girls Club of America he promised, which went up and down according to how well winners kept to a 45-second speech limit.
Stephen Colbert was the first presenter of the night, and in a nod to his show being cancelled by CBS (the channel that ran the ceremony this year), asked nominee Harrison Ford to get his resume to Steven Spielberg.
The directing for a Limited Series category featured five women to one man. Of course the man won it! ‘Adolescence’ overseer Philip Barantini took the trophy — the limited series itself won a clutch of awards.
Kristin Scott Thomas directs, co-writes and stars in ‘My Mother’s Wedding’.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Kristin Scott Thomas about her work on ‘My Mother’s Wedding’, developing the screenplay from her own life story, which characters she relates to the most, how her experience as an actress informed her work as a director, working with the cast, and shooting the complicated wedding sequences.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview with Thomas and Emily Beecham.
Kristin Scott Thomas in ‘My Mother’s Wedding’. Photo: Vertical.
Moviefone: To begin with, I understand the film is loosely based on your own life. Can you talk about the process of writing the screenplay with John Micklethwait and did you always intend to make this project your directorial debut?
Kristin Scott Thomas: They always say, “write about what you know”, and I know this story very, very well in that the experiences that these girls, in particularly, the character played by Scarlett Johansson, had, as children, were my experiences. So, all the memories that Catherine has in the film are my memories. This aspect of my life has been touted quite a lot during every time there’s a profile written about me, they’d have this little paragraph about my tragic childhood. Now that I’m grown up, I felt, well, hang on, it’s my turn to tell this story. So, here we go. So, what we did from there was to use my memories of my father and my stepfather and use them as a kind of catalyst if you like, to tell a story that is pretty much invented about these three women who returned to their childhood home to witness their mother getting married for the third time to a man who they find frankly disappointing. But their own love lives are all in turmoil. The fact that their mother is so deliriously happy, you know, makes some sort of quite comedic moments.
MF: Do you feel that there is a little bit of you in each character, or was there one character specifically that you can really relate to?
KST: Well, I think when you’re creating something, certainly as an actor, I know there’s always a tiny bit of me in it, there’s a tiny bit of my next-door neighbor, or there’s a tiny bit of, you know, we’re like magpies. We see things that we like, and we gather them all, and we put them into characters when we’re an actor. So, when you’re a writer, I think it’s the same thing. You know, you’re inventing a character, but I’m inventing it from things I’ve seen and things I’ve experienced during my life. So, I think there’s a bit of me in in everything, really, in all of them. Certainly, the character of the mother is somebody, I’d love to be that kind of a mum, you know, really sort of forthright and knows what’s what. I’d love to be so certain as she is.
(L to R) Scarlett Johansson, Emily Beecham and Sienna Miller in ‘My Mother’s Wedding’. Photo: Vertical.
MF: With all your experience as an actress collaborating with directors on different sets, do you think that informed the way you worked with your actors as a director on this set?
MF: I think it did. I think that I was very aware. If I started off making the film very much as an actress, as an actress directing a film, and then little by little, I got into the groove of being the one answered the questions and just made the decisions. But to begin with, I was very conscious of the actor’s needs. So, I had a way of sort of shorthand in talking to them and managing to explain what I would really like to see. But if they wanted to bring anything else, you know, great. That’s what I saw, I saw an enormous amount of sort of invention on their part and their imaginations were inspired and it went well.
MF: Finally, as difficult as a film can be to produce, so is a wedding, and you had to do both for this movie. Can you talk about shooting the wedding sequence?
KST: Oh, that was fun. I mean, as an actor, I’ve always sort of dreaded those big set pieces, because you sit around for hours, and you get bored and all. So, I tried to make it as relaxed as possible, and I tried to make it as mobile as possible. So, you don’t get stuck in one thing. So, you kind of jump around a bit, and there are sweet moments and quite funny moments. I tried to keep it as kind of busy as possible, towards the beginning anyway, to set it all up, and to keep it all kind of a bit feverish. So, that’s what we were aiming to do and then this glorious moment when Geoff (James Fleet) sings, when everyone just goes, “What’s he going to do”? He’s singing and then there’s the relaxing into it, because he’s so brave to get up there and sing this rather affecting song. You know, you have nothing but admiration for him, even though he’s not a singer. You’re touched by that. You’re moved by that. It was so generous of him.
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What is the plot of ‘My Mother’s Wedding’?
Three sisters (Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller and Emily Beecham) return to their family home to attend the wedding of their twice widowed mother Diana (Kristin Scott Thomas). All three sisters have had different life experiences, with Georgina being a palliative nurse, whilst Victoria is an actress, and Katherine is a captain in the Royal Navy.
Who is in the cast of ‘My Mother’s Wedding’?
Scarlett Johansson as Katherine
Sienna Miller as Victoria
Emily Beecham as Georgina
Kristin Scott Thomas as Diana
Freida Pinto as Jack
James Fleet as Geoff
(L to R) Emily Beecham, Sienna Miller, Kristin Scott Thomas and Scarlett Johansson in ‘My Mother’s Wedding’. Photo: Vertical.
The 2025 Emmy nominees were announced this morning.
‘Severance’, ‘The Penguin’ and ‘The Studio’ scored the most nominations.
‘Paradise’ and Netflix limited series ‘Adolescence’ were among the new arrivals.
The 2025 Emmy Award nominees were announced this morning by ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ actor Harvey Guillen and ‘Running Point’s Brenda Song, though the Television Academy spurred some grumbling by choosing to have two categories –– Outstanding Talk Series and Reality Competition Series –– four hours early on ‘CBS Mornings.’
This year, from a critical and awards standpoint, it was clear that the second season of Apple TV+ sci-fi drama ‘Severance’ was worth waiting for –– it nabbed 27 nominations, including Drama Series and a shot at a clutch of acting awards.
Harrison Ford in ‘Shrinking,’ now streaming on Apple TV+.
It was also a good day for aging actors in terms of awards: Harrison Ford landed his first career Emmy nomination for his role in ‘Shrinking’, making him the second oldest actor to earn one, while Kathy Bates became the oldest woman nominated in the Drama Lead Actress category thanks to her work on ‘Matlock.’
Not having such a great time of it? Elisabeth Moss, who failed to land a nomination for the final season of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, while ‘Yellowjackets’ was notably absent from the list and despite the show and its stars repeating, ‘The Bear’s creator Christopher Storer didn’t make the cut this time around.
(L to R) Sandra Diaz-Twine, Trishelle Cannatella, Chris ‘C.T.’ Tamburello, Alan Cumming, Kate Chastain, Mercedes “MJ” Javid in ‘The Traitors’. Photo by: Euan Cherry/Peacock.
The 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards will air Sunday, February 23rd on Netflix. Photo: Netflix.
Preview:
Movie actors Timothée Chalamet and Kieran Culkin won at the 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards.
On the TV front, ‘Shogun’ did well, taking three awards.
The event was held on Sunday night at the Shrine Auditorium.
This year’s movie awards season is careening towards its conclusion with next weekend’s Oscars, but this Sunday was the turn of the actors, with the Screen Actors Guild Awards, broadcast for the second time on Netflix and hosted once again by Kristen Bell.
With the focus, a little like the Critics Choice before it, on Los Angeles and the incredible impact of the wildfires on the city and its environs this year, there was time for a tribute to the first responders who fought the flames and provided aid.
But actors being actors, this was mostly a chance to celebrate, well, acting, as Bell launched into a monologue –– parodying a song from ‘Frozen,’ which we suppose she’s one of the few people who can still get away with that after this many years –– to look at various actors’ early jobs.
The 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards will air Sunday, February 23rd on Netflix. Photo: Netflix.
Otherwise, it was award show business as usual –– trophies were handed out, speeches read and jokes attempted.
The main movies up for ensemble had their casts out “presenting” each title, and those seemed particularly awkward, with little evidence of rehearsal or prep.
Other presenter duos seemed like they’d been imbibing or were simply nervous, with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson stumbling through their spiel and even the steps in presenting an award. For reference, it goes read nominees, wait for nominee intro list, read winner.
As for those who claimed awards, there were the predictable ones: Kieran Culkin accepted yet another trophy for ‘A Real Pain’ and if there’s a nailed-on prospect for an Oscar, he’s surely at the top of the list. His rambling speech also began one of the night’s running gags, with several winners (and at least one presenter) referring to how heavy the “actor” award statuette is. Zoe Saldaña added more hardware for her trophy cabinet for ‘Emilia Pérez’, while cast members of ‘Shōgun,’ ‘Baby Reindeer’ and ‘The Penguin’ won more awards.
The nominations for the 31st annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards were announced on the morning of Wednesday, January 8, 2025. Initial plans to stream the nominations live with hosts Joey King and Cooper Koch were canceled due to the horrific fires that are ravaging the greater Los Angeles area, with the list of nominees posted online instead.
The nominees on the motion picture side provided a further twist to the impending Oscar race, as ‘Emilia Perez’ – which walked away with four prizes at last Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony – continued to rack up multiple nominations, including Best Ensemble, Best Female Lead Performance for Karla Sofía Garcón, and Best Female Supporting Performance for Zoe Saldaña.
But while the Globes’ other big winner, ‘The Brutalist,’ was represented here by a sole nomination for Adrien Brody in Best Male Lead Performance, the musical fantasy ‘Wicked’ was a SAG favorite, with nominations for Best Ensemble, Best Female Lead Performance for Cynthia Erivo, Best Female Supporting Performance for Ariana Grande, and Best Male Supporting Performance for Jonathan Bailey.
Also a surprise: while Jeremy Strong got the nod in the Best Male Supporting Performance category for his malevolent turn as Roy Cohn in ‘The Apprentice,’ star Sebastian Stan did not land a nomination for either his star turn in that or ‘A Different Man,’ for which he won the Golden Globe on Sunday.
On the television side, ‘Shōgun’ followed its Emmys and Golden Globes winning streak with four nominations, including Best Ensemble in a Drama Series, two Best Male Actor nods, and a Best Female Actor nom. Additional multiple nominees in both the ensemble and individual acting categories included ‘The Bear,’ ‘The Diplomat,’ and ‘Hacks.’
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The 31st annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will stream live globally on Netflix from the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025, at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT.
‘The Brutalist’ and ‘Emilia Perez’ were the big winners at the 82nd annual Golden Globe Awards, winning Best Motion Picture in both their categories in addition to other major prizes.
Comebacks and upsets were the theme of the evening, as Demi Moore won her first award ever and surprise winners captured other categories.
Following last year’s disastrous hosting gig by Jo Koy, stand-up comic Nikki Glaser steadied the ship with a smooth, funny, if unspectacular performance as emcee.
‘The Brutalist’ and ‘Emilia Perez’ were the biggest movie winners at the 82nd annual Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, January 5, with the international journalists of the Golden Globe Foundation bestowing some of their biggest prizes on two of the more anti-commercial films of the season. A number of other highly hyped favorites like ‘Anora’ and ‘Wicked’ were largely shut out, while other major prizes went to a variety of smaller independent releases.
‘The Brutalist’ walked away with Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director for Brady Corbet, and Best Male Actor – Drama for Adrien Brody, while ‘Emilia Perez’ snagged Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Supporting Actor – Female for Zoe Saldana, Best Original Song for ‘El Mal,’ and Best International Motion Picture.
Neither film is what one might first think of as popular cineplex fare. ‘The Brutalist’ is a 3 ½ hour period epic about a brilliant architect and Holocaust survivor who struggles to find his place after landing in America following World War II, while ‘Emilia Perez’ is a musical about a Mexican cartel boss who transitions into a woman. ‘The Brutalist’ is just finding its way into theaters now, while ‘Emilia Perez’ has been streaming on Netflix since November. “We were told the film was undistributable, that no one would go see it,” said Corbet as he accepted Best Motion Picture. “No one was asking for 3 ½ hour film about a designer on 70mm. But it works.”
Moore, winning her first award of any kind in her long career, gave an impassioned and emotional speech in which she all but admitted that she never thought her work would receive any sort of acknowledgement beyond her ability to sell tickets:
“In those moments when we don’t think we are smart enough or pretty enough, or skinny enough or successful enough or basically just not enough, I had a woman say to me just know you will never be enough you can know the measure of your work if you just put down the measuring stick.”
She also revealed that she thought her best days as an actor might be behind her, a fear echoed by Adrien Brody in his equally emotional acceptance speech. “There was a time when I thought this would not be afforded to me again,” said the actor, who won an Oscar two decades ago for his portrayal of another Holocaust survivor in “The Pianist.”
Rousing speeches were among the highlights of the night, with Stan also acknowledging the difficulty of making films like ‘A Different Man’ and the Donald Trump biopic ‘The Apprentice,’ for which the Marvel star was also nominated for his portrayal of the convicted felon and once-and-future president. Meanwhile, director Jon M. Chu, accepting the Globes’ award for Best Cinematic and Box Office Achievement – most popular movie, in other words – for ‘Wicked,’ insisted on “how important making this stuff is, when pessimism and cynicism rule the planet right now.”
Aside from that award, ‘Wicked’ was shut out of other major prizes, as were Oscar favorites like ‘Anora,’ ‘Nickel Boys,’ and ‘A Complete Unknown,’ all of which went home empty-handed. ‘Conclave’ earned the screenplay prize, while ‘Challengers’ composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross won for Best Score and Kieran Culkin earned Best Supporting Actor for ‘A Real Pain,’ the latter one of the few awards of the night which seemingly has a lock on an Oscar win as well.
On the TV side, ‘Shogun’ was the behemoth of the evening, walking away with three acting prizes as well as Best TV Series – Drama, while ‘Hacks’ won for Best TV Series – Comedy or Musical and ‘Baby Reindeer’ earned the trophy for Best Limited Series. The latter beat out ‘The Penguin’ in that category, although Colin Farrell, as widely expected, did earn the award for Best Male Actor – Limited Series for his portrayal of the title Gotham City crime boss.
As for the Golden Globes show itself, host and stand-up comic Nikki Glaser was a largely smooth and entertaining remedy for last year’s disastrous stint by stand-up Jo Koy, although Glaser did pull back on her usual raunchier fare with a succession of funny, if somewhat predictable, jokes about various members of the star-studded audience. But she proved herself more than capable of working what can be an often tough and raucous room.
Seemingly having weathered the various scandals that have plagued the organization and the voting body of the awards, the Golden Globe Awards are back to some measure of their former luster, and back in the business of rewarding what they see as the best of this past movie and TV season.
If anything, this year’s batch of movie nominees feel weighted towards the indie side of things, albeit several produced by the indie arm of big studios. Still, there were the big titles –– ‘Wicked,’ ‘Dune: Part Two’ present as always.
Despite its later arrival on the awards scene compared to some of the other nominees, ‘A Complete Unknown’ –– which stars Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan, scored some notable attention.
And even though it boasts a seemingly brutal (pun entirely intended) three hours and 45 minute running time (including an intermission!), Brady Corbet’s latest, ‘The Brutalist,’ also landed several nominations.
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The new category this year was “Cinematic and Box Office Achievement” which, (deep breath) is defined as “a gross box office receipt total of at least $150 million, of which $100 million must come from the U.S. domestic box office, and/or obtain commensurate digital streaming viewership according to recognized trusted industry sources within the qualifying year.”
Oh, and movies released after November 22nd get in based on projected box office and streaming views. Just in case you were wondering…
‘Gladiator II,’ meanwhile had to make do with showing up on the aforementioned Cinematic and Box Office Achievement list and, as could have been predicted, a Best Supporting Actor nod for Denzel Washington’s scene-stealing role.
The 82nd annual Golden Globe Awards is set to air live from the Beverly Hilton on CBS and stream on Paramount+ on Sunday, January 5th.
On the TV side of the nominees, it was business as usual also as some heavy hitters (‘Abbott Elementary‘ and ‘Only Murders in the Building‘) saw plenty of potential trophies added to the list.
Among the newcomers, ‘Shōgun’ was well represented, as was fellow awards darling ‘Baby Reindeer.’ ‘The Day of the Jackal’ was perhaps the most surprising new arrival, though it’s not all that shocking given the success of that show.
The Globes are also the place where network TV gets more of a look in, with ‘Matlock’ among those up for awards.
Full list of TV nominations:
Best Television Series – Drama
Eddie Redmayne as the Jackal in ‘The Day of the Jackal’. Photo: Marcell Piti/Carnival Film and Television Limited.
The 2024 Emmy Awards will air on ABC Sunday, Sept. 15th.
Preview:
‘The Bear,’ ‘Shogun’ and ‘Baby Reindeer were among the big winners at the 2024 Emmys
‘Hacks’ was a surprise winner.
Dan and Eugene Levy hosted the night.
It might have been the second Emmys of 2024 (thanks to the strike-delayed first landing in January of this year), but otherwise it was business as usual for the TV Academy’s awards show.
Though there was the standard bout of repetition (‘The Bear’ won 11 awards, breaking its own record), while Billy Crudup and Jean Smart won more awards (for ‘The Morning Show’ and ‘Hacks respectively), there was still room for some surprises –– Lamorne Morris triumphed in the Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie category for ‘Fargo’ over Robert Downey Jr. for ‘The Sympathizer,’ while talking of ‘Hacks,’ it was the somewhat shocking (if welcome) winner in the Comedy Series arena over ‘The Bear.’
The other big winners were in the limited series category (even if one of them is in early development on its second season) as ‘Shogun’ and ‘Baby Reindeer’ nabbed multiple trophies. Jodie Foster won the first Emmy of her career for ‘True Detective: Night Country.’
(L to R) Annie Murphy, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara and Daniel Levy in ‘Schitt’s Creek’. Photo: CBC Television.
Eugene and Dan Levy, the stars (and in Dan’s case, creator) of ‘Schitt’s Creek,’ hosted the evening, kicking off with a monologue that touched on the controversy of a constantly dramatic show like ‘The Bear’ dominating the comedy categories and the growing presence of big movie stars on TV thanks to the lesser episodic demands of streaming shows.
And the big watchword for the show could be “nostalgia,” since various categories were handed out by stars of former TV shows such as ‘The West Wing’ and ‘Happy Days’ or those who played particular types of characters such as cops or lawyers.
There was an impassioned, funny speech from John Leguizamo about representation on television and a welcome award for TV super-producer Greg Berlanti. More confusing additions? Having Jelly Roll perform the In Memoriam song.
Here, then, is the full list of winners for the evening:
(L to R) Sandra Diaz-Twine, Trishelle Cannatella, Chris ‘C.T.’ Tamburello, Alan Cumming, Kate Chastain, Mercedes “MJ” Javid in ‘The Traitors’. Photo by: Euan Cherry/Peacock.
Gary Oldman in ‘Slow Horses’ season 4 now streaming on Apple TV+.
Returning for its fourth season with one episode on September 4th, ‘Slow Horses’ continues to prove itself as one of the best series on offer via the Apple TV+ service.
In fact, Apple has clearly been so happy with the viewership of the show, and so willing to future-proof the availability of its cast, that it has been shooting two seasons at once. A fifth is already in the works, and the start of the fourth indicates that it has lost none of the unpredictable, grungy and satisfyingly British style that fans have come to enjoy.
Does ‘Slow Horses’ Season 4 succeed in its mission?
Jack Lowden in ‘Slow Horses’ season 4 now streaming on Apple TV+.
While there’s little doubt that the key to ‘Slow Horses’ appeal is Gary Oldman having the time of his life as the grubby, greasy, but incredibly sharp agent Jackson Lamb (the actor has scored a welcome first Emmy nomination for the role following Season 3), the show still doesn’t lazily rely on the performance and the character, evolving each season to embrace new personalities and expanded storylines, while maintaining what works.
For Season 4, that more-of-the-same-with-a-twist approach shows no sign of faltering, and indeed, the initial episodes –– we’ll only really discuss the first here as that’s the one landing on premiere day –– are suitably excellent.
‘Slow Horses’ Season 4: Script and Direction
(L to R) Ruth Bradley and Gary Oldman in ‘Slow Horses’ season 4 now streaming on Apple TV+.
Led by Will Smith (a writer and former stand-up with experience on Armando Iannucci’s shows, not the movie star), the series’ writing team is always on point, using Mick Herron’s novels as a starting point for the basic structure of each season and then expanding from there, but always in organic fashion.
It may not always be as action-packed as other shows (though it certainly has its moments –– witness the traumatic bomb attack that opens this season), when you have dialogue that crackles like this, you don’t need every space to be filled with someone waving a gun. And in the mouths of Oldman and the rest of the game cast, it’s always guaranteed to make you laugh or gasp… sometimes at the same time.
On the visual side of things, the show benefits from having both a more limited number of episodes per season (usually six) and one director through the whole batch, meaning that the show –– also thanks to a hefty budget from Apple –– ends up looking like a movie cut into TV-sized chunks. The environs of Slough House, the low-rent office where Lamb and co. are based, are wonderfully scruffy and evocative, in stark contrast to the polished glass and cold concrete of MI5’s main Regent’s Park HQ.
And the show uses London’s variety of landscapes and neighborhoods, plus other areas in the UK, to great effect. In Season’s 4 case, the man in charge of the show’s look is Adam Randall, who fits in well with the overall style.
‘Slow Horses’ Season 4: Performances
Oldman might rightfully score the lion’s share of the plaudits, but there is a wider ensemble all putting in great performances.
Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb
Gary Oldman in ‘Slow Horses’ season 4 now streaming on Apple TV+.
Oldman has repeatedly said that he’s having the time of his life playing the grumpy, cynical and endlessly mucky head of Slough House, and that energy seeps out of every pore. The vanity-free performance (Lamb is frequently seen with lanky hair, grease stains and mismatched clothing), is a truly memorable one, the slovenly appearance the perfect camouflage for a truly inspired spy mind.
Jack Lowden in ‘Slow Horses’ season 4 now streaming on Apple TV+.
While he was the audience surrogate character at the start, the young agent banished to Slough House after a training mission goes wrong, River has grown into a great sidekick for Lamb, and an impressive character in his own right. And Lowden brings a superb blend of world-weariness and enthusiasm to the role.
Jonathan Pryce in ‘Slow Horses’ season 4 now streaming on Apple TV+.
Though the elder Cartwright has mostly been a supporting character in earlier seasons, it’s easy to see why Smith chose an experienced thespian like Pryce to play him; because he knew that David would become much more important down the line. And Pryce brings a potent combo of wise elder former agent and humbled aging grandfather to the part, which expands here.
Kristin Scott Thomas in ‘Slow Horses’ season 4 now streaming on Apple TV+.
Few people can do withering putdowns like Thomas, and in Taverner, she’s found the ideal outlet. A canny, ice-cold professional, she’s forever frustrated by the hapless government types she’s forced to deal with. And her endlessly watchable interactions with Oldman are often a highlight of each season.
Other notable characters
(L to R) Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Christopher Chung, Tom Brooke, Kadiff Kirwan and Rosalind Eleazar in ‘Slow Horses’ season 4 now streaming on Apple TV+.
The rest of the Slough House ensemble all get their moments in the sun, and this fourth season includes a healthy influx of new characters (since in this show, a long life expectancy is never guaranteed). Highlights of the new episodes include Joanna Scanlan (like showrunner Smith, a veteran of Armando Iannucci’s shows) as the eager-to-please Moira and Tom Brooke as JK, a mysterious and honestly weird fresh addition to the office. And not forgetting James Callis as Claude Whelan, the nervous, officious new First Desk of MI5 and a great foil for Taverner.
‘Slow Horses’ Season 4: Final Thoughts
Gary Oldman in ‘Slow Horses’ season 4 now streaming on Apple TV+.
‘Slow Horses’ creative team have said they’ll happily keep making the show as long as Apple wants them to (and Mick Herron keeps writing books to adapt, with the author up to eight and counting), and that’s welcome news.
If only more series were as consistently entertaining, and this still full of steam when their fourth seasons rolled around, the TV landscape would be in much better shape.
‘Slow Horses’ Season 4 receives 8.5 out of 10 stars.
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What’s the story of ‘Slow Horses’ Season 4?
Adapted from Mick Herron’s ‘Slow Horses’ novel ‘Spook Street’, Season 4 opens as a bomb has exploded in a shopping center in London and MI5 is racing to figure out who is responsible. Second Desk (the second-in-command of the intelligence service) Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) must balance the demands of the investigation with effectively babysitting the nervy new First Desk (James Callis).
As for those at Slough House, River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) is faced with his grandfather David’s (Jonathan Pryce) increasingly fragile mental condition, compounded by a new mystery that could threaten both their lives. Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), meanwhile, is his same old, irascible self, happy to endlessly mock his team of exiled agents, but also fiercely loyal when it comes to protecting them.
And he’ll need to, as a face from the past has returned to cause trouble…
Who else is in the cast of ‘Slow Horses’ Season 4?
